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Frederick Dukes (Earth-616)
; formerly , , , , , frequent partner of Unus the Untouchable | Relatives = Blob (clone, deceased) | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Mutant Town, formerly Freedom Force HQ, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia | Gender = Male | Height = 5'10" | Weight = 275 lbs | Weight2 = (currently); Formerly 510 lbs | Eyes = Brown | Hair = Brown | UnusualFeatures = Obese, formerly excedent skin (depowered form), abnormally obese (powered form) | CharRef = | Citizenship = American | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Former Professional criminal, circus performer, federal government special operative | Education = | Origin = Depowered mutant using MGH from Dazzler | PlaceOfBirth = Lubbock, Texas | Creators = Stan Lee; Jack Kirby | First = X-Men #3 | HistoryText = Early Life Fred Dukes, alias the "Blob" is a mutant whose latent superhuman powers manifested themselves when he reached puberty. His major weaknesses were his short temper, lack of foresight, his lack of intelligence, and his easily-manipulated self-esteem. Thinking of himself as no more than, in his own words, "an extra-strong freak," the Blob used his superhuman mutant powers as a performer in a carnival. Meeting the X-Men The original X-Men came to the carnival in their everyday identities to invite him to meet with their mentor, Professor Charles Xavier. Attracted to the beautiful young X-Man Jean Grey, the Blob accepted, and went with the X-Men to Xavier's mansion. There, Xavier asked the Blob to join the X-Men, but the Blob arrogantly refused. Xavier then knew he had to use his mental powers to erase the Blob's knowledge of the X-Men's true identities. But the Blob had no intention of letting this happen, and, after fighting the X-Men, escaped back to the carnival. The Blob had learned through meeting Xavier that he himself was a superhumanly powerful mutant. Believing himself to be superior to normal people, the Blob took over the carnival. Knowing that the X-Men considered him dangerous because he knew who they really were, the Blob decided to strike out at them first. He led the other members of the carnival on an attack on Xavier's mansion. The Blob hoped to steal whatever scientific discoveries and special weapons that the X-Men might possess and use them against ordinary humans. However, the X-Men defeated the Blob and his allies, and Xavier wiped out their memories of the X-Men. Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Later, Magneto attempted to recruit the Blob for his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. A severe blow to the head restored the Blob's memory of the X-Men, and he joined Magneto's Brotherhood in an attack on them. In the midst of battle Magneto launched a powerful torpedo at the X-Men, not caring that the Blob was in the way. Torpedoes struck the Blob but did not seriously injure him. The Brotherhood escaped, and the Blob, feeling betrayed, swore never to trust anyone again and returned to his job with the carnival. Months later, under the behind-the-scenes influence of the alien Lucifer, the Blob met another superhumanly powerful mutant, Unus the Untouchable, and the two of them attempted to frame their mutual enemies, the X-Men, as bank robbers. This was the start of the Blob's long and close friendship with Unus, which ended only with Unus's apparent death several years later. The two mutants next joined Factor Three, an organization of mutants that attempted world conquest. Blob and Unus teamed up with other mutants, including Magneto, for other criminal activities, although they were continually thwarted by superhuman crime fighters. Eventually, the Blob was recruited by Mystique for her new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Although the Blob continued to operate independently of Mystique's organization since then, he remained a member of the group. Mystique soon became aware of the United States government's increasing anti-mutant activity, and offered the Brotherhood's services to the government, renaming the group "Freedom Force." The Blob participated in Freedom Force's first official mission for the government: the capture of Magneto, his former leader in the original Brotherhood. As a member of Freedom Force, the Blob was involved in missions that continued to bring him into conflict with superhuman crime fighters, most notably the X-Men, X-Factor, and the Avengers. The Blob enjoyed the fact that he could continue indulging his violent tendencies and fighting his old foes while drawing a government paycheck. However, after a disastrous mission to the Middle East, the government disbanded Freedom Force, and the Blob was once again a free agent. The Blob soon joined yet another version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, headed up by his old team mate from the original Brotherhood, the Toad. This team was defeated by the outlaw mutant strike team called X-Force. The Blob allied himself with another mutant, the Mimic, and battled members of X-Force under the orders of an as yet unknown benefactor. Later, Blob was apparently recruited by Onslaught, who taught him the mass-controlling, quasi-shapeshifting aspects of his powers. Blob later got some help in controlling those powers from Sledge, for which Blob owed him some favors. Months afterwards, Blob was among the mutants comprising the second incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants, who were on a mission to find Professor X so that he could protect them from the rampages of the sentient Cerebro. Finally, Blob was re-recruited into the Brotherhood by Mystique to take down X-51, the Machine Man. Later, he was involved in the group's failed attempt to kill Senator Kelly. Following that mission, Blob was incarcerated, but was sprung months later by the Multiple Men, who brought him into Banshee's X-Corps. Blob resisted Banshee at first, but a well-placed sonic scream put him in his place. Thanks to Mastermind's telepathy, his villainous impulses were controlled, and he functioned as the group's strong man until Mystique released Mastermind. Blob then attacked his "heroic" teammates and was finally put down by Stacy X's pheromone control. It is unknown whether he was arrested or detained, but months later, after he was "left out" of a Brotherhood attack on the X-Men, he appeared in a therapy session with a Dr. Garrison, who advised him to be true to himself. Garrison, himself a mutant with pheromone powers, apparently induced Blob to attack the X-Mansion. Needless to say, Blob was defeated, mostly by the students, who managed to put him to sleep with telepathy and pheromones. M-Day At this time in the Starlite-Casino of Atlantic City, the Blob was one of the thousands of mutants to lose their powers due to the Scarlet Witch's spell, though his skin has not shrunk to compensate the loss of his bloated mass, giving him huge folds of loose skin all over his body and causing him to become suicidal. Back to New York, he came to met in a back-alley Sally Floyd who was working on the Ex-Mutant Diaries. Unwilling to be himself interviewed, he gave her the tip to investigate to Ravencroft Institute. Eventually coming to blame the government for M-Day, he joined other former mutants in the terrorist X-Cell. After mistakenly getting into a fight with Rictor and Multiple Man and getting in a cheap shot on Rictor, he stole a car. With fellow X-Cell member, Fatale, he attempted to flee, eventually hitting an open manhole (left open earlier in the day by Strong Guy and Wolfsbane) and causing the car to crash. After getting rid of his excess skin folds somehow and reinventing himself as reality TV star Freddie Dukes, he was later seen with Magneto as he went to The High Evolutionary about regaining his powers. Madripoor With his powers seemingly restored, the Blob being repowered repowered by the MGH produced from Dazzler, he joined Mystique in her attempts to turn Madripoor into a mutant sanctuary. After hearing that Magneto was also on the island, Blob welcomed him and brought him to meet Mystique. To Blob's shock however, Magneto reacted violently to the plan, believing that Mystique and the others were traitors to their species, in part due to allowing the use of Mutant Growth Hormone to run rampant in the streets to fund their operations. He heavily injured Blob and the Brotherhood, and left after making their base collapse. Later Blob was shown checking out the condition of the comatose Dazzler, as he needed more MGH, feeling his powers leaving him again, when he was interrupted by Mystique and Sabretooth. | Powers = The Blob's mutant powers were related to the mass, strength, resilience and indestructibility of his obese body. Superhuman Durability and Strength: The Blob's body possesses a high degree of resistance to injury. The fat tissues that comprise the Blob's epidermis are able to absorb the impact of rifle bullets, cannonballs, bazooka, and even torpedoes. The larger of these projectiles recoil from his body at one half the force of impact. The smaller one embed themselves in his layers of fat tissue, enabling him to eject them by merely flexing his muscles. The Blob's nerve endings do not relay any tactile perception to his brain which are near the threshold of pain. The fat tissue of his epidermis is resilient enough to revert to its normal shape within seconds after deformation caused by impact. It is virtually impervious to physical injury. The Blob's skin cannot be punctured or lacerated by most known materials, frostbitten, or ravaged by any skin disease, due in part to the skin's greatest elasticity and toughness and in part to the highly accelerated rate at which his skin cells grow and replace themselves. His skin is somewhat less resistant to burning. Blob also has more resistance against alcohol due to his greater mass, though he can still be intoxicated if he ingests huge amounts of alcohol. It is not yet known if there is an upper limit to the Blob's ability to absorb impact. He could easily survive a head-on collision with a bus traveling at a hundred miles per hour, even a highly ferrous meteorite fifty feet in diameter on top of him at terminal velocity. Former powers Gravitational Mass allocation: Blob's main superhuman ability was to become virtually immovable at will as long as he was in contact with the ground. He did this by bonding himself to the earth beneath him by force of will, which in effect created a mono-directional increase of gravity beneath him. This gravity field extended about five feet in radius from his center of balance. Thus if there were sufficient power to uproot him, it would take the ground beneath his feet in an area corresponding to the radius of the field. Through intense concentration, the Blob was able to extend the gravity field beneath him farther than five feet. | Abilities = The Blob is a formidable hand to hand combatant. Although he possesses no formal training, his great size coupled with his strength and resistance to injury render him a highly efficient and effective street fighter. | Strength = The Blob possesses the strength of a man of his age, height and build who engages in no regular exercise. Before M-Day, he was superhumanly strong and capable of lifting 70 tons. His current strength level is unknown. | Weaknesses = Projected energy attacks, like Scott Summers' optic blasts, have been seen to penetrate his skin. His eyes and the interior of his ears, mouth, nose are also vulnerable to injury. Blob is however vulnerable to a concussion such as during his run-in with Daredevil during his days in Freedom Force, Daredevil had the girl Amanda, whom Blob and Pyro were ordered to capture use her telekinetic powers, drop a large bell which knocked Blob out after Daredevil lured him to the Bell Tower. | Equipment = | Transportation = Formerly Freedom Force Helicopter. Henchmen Stretcho Stretcho participated in the attack against the X-Men and tried to blast his way through, but he was eventually defeated by the Angel. Tex Tex was a carnival performer who used to shoot at Blob to demonstrate his massive impact absorption power. | Weapons = | Notes = | Trivia = | Links = * }} Category:X-Men Villains Category:Rom Villains Category:Pain Suppression Category:Depowered Mutants Category:Rems Category:M-Day Depowered Category:Sleepwalker Villains Category:MGH user Category:Characters who have used Drugs